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The "War on Terror" is a misleading, although nevertheless helpful, term. The fact is that since the end of World War II we have lived through two gross manifestations of terrorism. The first involved large scale hostage taking and Cold War distinctions between left and right (remember all those so-called "red" terror organizations, the SLA, etc.... ). As the Cold War and its associated politics receded, so did the terrorist groups.

This new wave of terrorism is based on long-simmering religious, cultural, land and political tensions. Notice that weapons of terrorism have changed as well -- far fewer kidnappings, and far more suicide bombers. Unfortunately, as long as these long-simmering tensions exist, this new era of terrorism will exist. The prognosis is not good here -- many of these disputes are unlikely to be resolved anytime soon and not without shared sacrifice. Terrorism is, in large part, a negotiating tactic and strategy that emerges from these long standing disputes. Can there really be a war against a negotiating tactic and strategy? Not really.

All that being said, it is clear that the tactic of terrorism must always be aggressively challenged, confronted and opposed, even while we still struggle to make forward progress on the underlying issues. We need to confront terrorism regardless of its source -- state or non-state actors. We have to make it very hard on terrorists to conduct their operations as well as anticipate how they will innovate, as this is our best chance to limit their effectiveness and to improve the environment for resolving long simmering-disputes. In this limited sense, we need to be engaged in a war on terrorism. And let's not forget, we need to remain committed to work on those long-simmering disputes as well.

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